Municipal leaders around Edmonton have mixed feelings about potential changes to their provincial ridings.

Alberta’s electoral boundaries commission issued its final report Thursday, recommending how to change the provincial political map to add two more ridings, to adjust for population growth. For the first time, though, it has presented the legislative assembly with two different visions of how that could look.

In either case, the capital city region would gain hybrid ridings that combine parts of Edmonton with neighbouring communities.

“Having the capital city actually broken up into ridings that extend beyond our boundaries, it actually lessens their representation,” Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack told CBC News.

Knack acknowledged there are projects and needs that Edmonton shares with the satellite communities in question, and that the city works already with those communities. But ultimately, he said, the future MLAs will be representing communities with unique needs.

“There would be more logic to retain some of the smaller municipalities together — as has been the case for decades — than breaking up the capital city,” Knack said.

“That loss of communities of interest is very concerning.”

The commission was chaired by Dallas Miller, a retired judge who Premier Danielle Smith appointed to the role, and filled out with two appointees each for the governing United Conservative Party and Opposition NDP. Their mandate was to create 89 provincial ridings, up from the 87 that have existed since 2012.

The commission presented dueling reports with alternative maps: one that most commissioners supported, another with less support.

The majority — Miller and the opposition’s two appointees — raised significant criticisms of the minority report, including potential gerrymandering, a U.S. political term that describes redistricting efforts to skew partisan advantage. They also warned MLAs that accepting the minority report could lead to successful court challenges.

If the majority report’s suggestions are approved by the legislative assembly, the city of Edmonton would see a net gain of one seat. Six ridings in the city’s core would be consolidated into five, and two hybrid divisions would be added — one merging the outskirts of southeast Edmonton and the city of Beaumont, another combining west Edmonton, Enoch Cree Nation and some Albertans southwest of the city.  

The minority report also suggests cutting an urban riding, but would create three hybrid ridings: Edmonton-Spruce Grove, Edmonton-Enoch-Devon and Edmonton-Beaumont.

Keeping Beaumont intact is a change from October, when the commission recommended in its interim report that the city of more than 26,000, located just south of Edmonton, be shared between two ridings.

The commission’s final report noted the many pleas from residents and municipal officials to change course. But Beaumont Mayor Lisa Vanderwaak told CBC News the city would have also preferred to continue sharing a riding with the Leduc area.

“It wasn’t the outcome that we had hoped for. However, we are very excited that they listened to us,” she said.

Beaumont and Edmonton have a good relationship and share services, she said, but her municipality has worked closer with Leduc, historically.

The commission’s majority report stated that an electoral division made up entirely of Leduc and Beaumont would be “by far the most populous” in Alberta, and keeping it would have impeded effective representation throughout the province.

Edmonton residents weren’t heavily for or against hybrid ridings, the majority report said, and the ones it proposes “will not dilute the power of Edmonton voters in the legislature, but instead ensure they get two additional seats while joining their votes to those with a community of interest.”

Alberta’s last two boundary commissions, in 2010 and 2017, also offered minority reports, but they were from individual commissioners and didn’t redraw the maps.

The final report still has to be tabled in the legislative assembly, at which point there could be debate and, possibly, amendments. Previous governments have made changes, particularly to riding names.

Once approved, a bill will be introduced to amend Alberta’s Electoral Divisions Act. If that passes, the new boundaries will be in effect for the next provincial election.